BY THE time the Mr. Lewis, the shop’s owner, came in for the evening shift, my nerves were completely frayed. I asked whether there was anything that he needed me to do, just so I would have an excuse not to leave by myself, but he’d just patted my hand and told me to go get some rest because I looked tired. After leaving the shop and heading toward home, I paid special attention to everyone around me. Just as I was breathing a sigh of relief that Clay hadn’t found me alone and unarmed during my walk, he stepped out from a concealed doorway and fell into step beside me.

Even as I tried to ignore him and walk faster, I glanced around furtively in the hope that there would be someone else around—some witness that would still his hand and keep me alive long enough to get back to Dad and escape.

“I need to talk to you,” Clay said.

I crossed my arms together to force myself to not reach for him and quickened my steps. “We have nothing to say to each other,” I hissed. “Besides, I think you made yourself clear the last time we spoke. If you’re here because of some sick sense of duty, just do it and stop tormenting me already.”

He reached out for my arm, using my own momentum to swing me around to face him before taking a handful of steps in my direction, forcing me backward until he’d cornered me against an alley wall with my hands pinned against the wall above my head. The moment I was trapped, I stuck my chin out defiantly.

If he was going to kill me, he would have to look me in the eye and do it. A familiar wave of heat washed over my skin, culminating in my fingers. If he thought I would be easy to destroy, he was mistaken. I wouldn’t go down without a fight.

The heat racing over my body wasn’t enough to force him to release me though.

“I’m sorry for what happened that day,” he said. “I . . . I can’t even tell you what’s been going through my mind since then.”

His words disarmed me, they were the last things I expected from him, and I closed my eyes as they took me back to the precise moment my life changed.

With the memory of that afternoon beneath the canopy of magnolias in my mind, a renewed fire burned within me.

“You’re sorry? For what? Let me guess, you’ve been furious for all these years that you let the monster go?” I spat at him. “I know what you are and all about that group you belong to.” At least this time I was armed with the knowledge of exactly how dangerous he was to me. I wouldn’t be taken by surprise when the boy I’d liked turned into the fearsome hunter he truly was.

My admission didn’t seem to surprise Clay in the least.

“I know why they sent you and what you’re here to do,” I added.

“You really don’t,” he said. He leaned his body closer to me, pinning me tighter against the wall. His breath blew across my skin and, just like it had when he’d whispered his warning back in the shop, being so close to him set new fires ablaze within me, ones that had nothing to do with fear.

Those fires caused my stomach to clench and a desperate ache to flood through my body.

“You made your feelings about me perfectly clear last time.” I set my jaw and tried to ignore my traitorous body. “Why don’t you stop wasting both our time and just do it already!”

His attack came before I’d even finished talking. He was so close I couldn’t have fought him off even if I’d anticipated his move. Instead of a knife or a gun striking me though, his lips formed the attack. They pressed desperately hard against my mouth with a desperation that left me breathless. I tugged at my hands in an attempt to fight free of his hold. Only my fight wasn’t met with any resistance. He released his hold instantly.

My intention had been to push him away. When my palms brushed his shirt though, my fingers curled. I clutched him to me instead, drawing him closer still. His fingers slipped underneath the base of my wig, and he tilted my head to allow his tongue more room to graze along my lower lip. A soft moan left him, humming against my willing lips as his breathing grew ragged and needful.

My head spun, not only from the sudden shift between my expectation and reality, but also because the desperation in his kiss stole my breath away. I was grateful for the wall behind my back. I leaned against it for support as his attack continued. While my body shifted closer to the wall in small increments, his moved to press against me until I was completely surrounded on both sides.

I was captured in his embrace. But I couldn’t find it in me to fight him off. I didn’t want to. Despite all of the layers of clothing between us, the effect our proximity had on his body was clear. I pressed my hips off the wall to meet with his. I slid my hands around to his back and was pulling him closer still when his lips ended their relentless onslaught.

He rested his forehead against mine as he issued a staggering sigh.

“I’ve waited two years for that,” he murmured as his chest heaved against mine while he struggled to steady his breathing. “And it was as every bit as perfect as I’d dreamed it would be.”

Perfect was the right word. Every inch of my body longed to pull him against me and kiss him again, to not allow him a single moment to second-guess his actions. The other part was so shocked by the shift that had occurred since our last meeting that I was left reeling.

I had no idea how long we’d been there for—who could bother to count such meaningless things as the passage of seconds when being attacked so perfectly—but it wasn’t long enough for me.

I needed more.

Once our breathing had returned to normal, he stepped away. I had to rest my weight against the wall to stay upright as my legs were wobbling so violently. Whether from shock or that kiss, I couldn’t say. I lifted my hand and pressed my fingers against my now swollen lips. They were tender, but in the best possible way.

“What?” I asked, trying to gather my senses. “Why?”

“Can we please talk?” he asked again as he put more distance between us.

I nodded absently.

“Meet me here,” he murmured as he pressed a card into my palm. “Anytime that you want, I’ll be waiting.”

For a moment, he seemed to have an internal debate as his eyes fell to my mouth and his tongue slicked across his lower lip just before he sank his top teeth into his pout. It was as if he was stopping himself from doing it again. Disappointment flicked through my body, quelling the fires his kiss had ignited. I was an idiot. He was dangerous to me. I had to remember that above anything else.

“Wait,” I murmured, and his gaze lifted back up to meet mine. There was one vital question I needed the answer to. “How did you find me so easily?”

What did Dad and I do wrong that allowed him to find us?

He snorted. “You think it was easy?”

With a shake of his head, he clenched his hands into fists. Then he stalked away with deliberate steps and without a backward glance, leaving me alone with my questions.